Aloe, Sunscreen and Burns, Ouch
by Elielephant
Summary: His Heir's one-year-anniversary-one-shot.


The His Heir one-year-one-shot. This took awhile since I didn't know who certain things were going to be, like setting, characters that would be in it and all, but I figured something out. This is fluffy like Bones's one-year-one-shot, Duckys, was. So, Kidd will be OoC, probably, but fans of His Heir should, like, know that by now. :)

So, enjoy~

Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece, but plot and OCs are mine.

* * *

Aloe, Sunscreen and Burns, Ouch

The sun could be a double edged sword when it wanted to be. It could make the time during the day nice, a joy to sit in the grass and stare up at the clouds passing by, seeing what the white puffs in the sky could be to the eye. Or, it could be a total bitch. How could the wonderful thing, like the sun, the object that gave the world light and life, is such a bad thing? There was only one thing: sunburns. Sunburns could be a total bitch, especially to the ones with fair skin.

Granted, he didn't have fair skin like his dad did, but rather tanned skin that he inherited from his mom like her ginger hair and golden eyes. So, in truth, he wasn't supposed to have to worry about sunburn because it should have been harder for him to get, but that wasn't the case. While outside, the exposed skin of his arms, face and legs had started to turn a light shade of pink. Daniel, one of his best friends, had advised he go inside before the burns could get worse, since he was a fair skinned boy and knew what sunburn felt like. He, on the other hand, didn't. His mom usually put sunscreen on him before he could even attempt in going outside, just to be safe because she didn't want anything to happen to her 'little man'. Though, today was different since she was working on a special project for school.

His mom had made the choice to go to Grad. School after she had gotten a degree in Psychology and she was now learning about the study of Parapsychology: demonology to be exact. Why his mom of all people wanted to learn about that baffled him, but when he asked her about it, she said that her great, great, great grandfather was possessed by a demon and it caused him to get hanged. So, she wanted to learn as much as she could about the subject so that maybe she could help others before something terrible happens to them like her Ohdan.

It seemed like a good reason, but his dad would call her crazy for that reason and the ideas of 'demons' weren't real. And his mom would say that their 'love' for the night wasn't going to be real if he kept that up, which made his dad shut up in a heartbeat. He didn't understand what she meant by that, but his mom said he would when he got older.

When that time was, he didn't know, but he did know that he wanted to outgrow getting sunburned as quickly as possible. Luckily, Daniel had pointed it out to him before it could get any worse, so he barely felt the tingling sting of the burns on his skin as he walked around the house, looking for the sunscreen. He checked the closet by the front door where he had entered his house, but there were only dusty coats for the winter months and the vacuum cleaner stuffed inside. The next obvious place he could think of was the junk drawer in the kitchen since that was where his parents placed almost everything that didn't have a proper place, but needed a place to be.

So, he went to the kitchen, hearing the muffled yaps of Hamish from outside that told whoever was inside that the puppy wanted to be let back in. He would let Hamish back in once he found the sunscreen so that he could protect his slightly burned skin from anymore harm, but then he stopped in his tracks when he saw something small and hairy in the middle of the kitchen floor between island and the stove.

He tilted his head in curiosity; his eyes watching the tiny legs crawl at a slow leisurely pace across the floor, the nimble joints moving smoothly, like it tried to get away from his prying eyes looking down at it. He then started to move closer to it, shifting down on his knees and placing his hands on the tiled floors to inspect the tiny insect closer, but the movement caused the small creature to scamper forward quickly, darting away like a bullet to create distance. So, he slowly sat back up on his heels and looked over his shoulder to the doorway of the kitchen that led to the office where his mom was.

"_Mom!_" He yelled to get her attention, but she didn't come right away like he wanted her too, so he called again. "_Mommy~!_" He called her using the childish name he had dropped after he turned officially six, which had made his mom rather distraught because she thought he was growing up too fast, so he knew she would hurry when he called her by the name again. And she did, he heard the soft pads of her bare feet on the wood floors from the hallway and then in the doorway his mom appeared still wearing her short night gown she wore that night.

"What is it, baby?" She questioned curiously, her hands behind her head as she quickly tied up her ginger hair in a messy bun of curls.

"Look at this," he told her, pointing a finger to the tiny insect still crawling along the floor.

His mom's thin brow rose with interest at what he was talking about and she stepped forward slowly, squinting her golden eyes as she went along, bending over slightly so she could get a better look at what was there. When she saw, her eyes opened wide. "_Caden!_" she shrieked in fright, rushing to him quickly and then scooped him up in her arms tightly like he had just turned into an infant again. "_Don't get near that!_" and then she promptly jumped on the kitchen's island, sitting on the counter as she held him protectively in her lap, using both her chest and legs like a shield to hide him the smallest 'danger' in the world.

"Mom…" Caden started to say slowly to calm her down since he knew his mom didn't like any type of vermin in the house, ranging from rats to bugs. "It's only a spider…"

"A spider the size of your head!" she exclaimed, squeezing him to her chest until his head was smooshed between her breasts.

"It's the size of a quarter," Caden countered simply, trying to pry away from her motherly death grip, but his mom wouldn't let go.

"It could be poisonous!" His mom then shouted as she looked down at the small spider warily, like it would grow to the size of the house in an instant as the spiders do in cheesy, horror movies from the 50's.

"It's just a house spider, Mom…" Caden corrected shortly.

"I don't care," his mommy then huffed. "We are staying away from that thing until Daddy gets home."

Caden knew that there was no point in arguing since his mom could be rather stubborn because his dad had said so many times before, but he really didn't want to sit in her lap on the kitchen island for hours. So, he had to think of something to get her to move, and the perfect idea came to mind when he heard Hamish barking at the door once more.

"If we let Hamish in then he can kill the spider," Caden suggested smoothly.

"_No,_" his mom countered swiftly, holding him even tighter to his form like he was a teddy bear to comfort her and not the other way around.

"I can go get him," Caden then told her, trying to pry away from her strong embrace.

"You might get bitten," his mom warned, pulling him closer so all his attempts to push away failed.

"I can run really fast though," Caden brought up, feeling rather smug about the fact because it was true; he was the fastest boy in the whole second grade.

"I won't risk it," his mom bluntly answered.

And with a thick sigh, Caden gave up, knowing first hand now about how stubborn his mom could be. So, they waited and waited, sitting there is complete silence since his mother's full focus was on watching the spider slowly circle around them at a snail's pace. Caden just leaned into the warmth of his mom's breasts, feeling rather bored with the fact that he knew his dad wasn't going to be home until late that night like usual. The light in the room slowly got darker until there were only rays of red and orange coming into the room. It took a good five hours of sitting there before he heard the roar of his dad's trunk's engine from outside and then the click of the side door at the kitchen open up.

Hamish was the first to run in, barking happily since he had been left outside for hours because no one could let him in, no matter how much Caden had tried to convince his mom to let him go. Though, he saw that the plan he thought up hours ago wouldn't have worked since the dog was too lazy to do anything, and it just sniffed the spider and then carried on its way when it didn't move, probably thinking it was already dead.

Caden huffed in disprovable of his family pet, wishing it was more viscous, like Tanner's dog, Bepo; Tanner said he saw Bepo bite a man so hard the guy had to go to the hospital and stay there for weeks. It was intense, which was the reason why Caden wanted a dog like Tanner's.

Then the loud bang of the metal door slamming brought Caden from his inner thoughts and he looked over to see his dad stalking into the room. The scowl on his face was dark due to the poor lighting in the kitchen, but Caden could still see the grease on his dad's form from working at the garage all day. The black oil stained his jeans and the white shirt was covered as well, the only piece of clothing untouched was his dad's leather jacket.

His dad quickly shed his jacket from his form, dropping it to the ground without a care, which was clear because of the expression on his face since his mood was more sour than usual. Then he tore the white, oil stained shirt over his head, cursing under his breath the entire time, a long chain of profanities that Caden couldn't hear, but then his dad flipped on the light stitch. The kitchen was then bathed in artificial light, allowing his dad to notice that he and his mom were sitting on the counter top. He didn't say anything and just stared at them in annoyance.

That's when his mom simply pointed to the spider still on the ground. "Kill it," was all she said.

His dad looked at them with even more irritation and grumbled: "For the love of…" then his voice grew lower to the point where Caden could no longer understand what he was cursing about. His dad stomped forward and rammed the heel of his black work boot onto the spider's tiny body, making the tiny crunch noticeable as spider guts decorated the tiled flooring.

Then he stormed out of the kitchen, leaving the flattened spider behind until the slam of his bedroom door rattled the house.

Then it was only him and his mom. His mom had lightened her grip on him, allowing him to sit comfortably on her lap as she sat cross-legged on the counter still, but finally being free wasn't the thing on his mind, but rather it was his dad. So he leaned over to whisper into his mom's ear quickly and asked: "What crawled up his ass and died?"

"_Caden,_" his mom said sternly, whacking him gently upside the head. "Do _not_ curse."

Caden just grunted; it was his dad's fault he cursed, not his, but before he could even comment about it to his mom, she grabbed his ankle, lifting his leg into the air.

She inspected it for a moment, her golden eyes widening when she saw that the formerly light pink skin of his calve had turned a light red. "Is this _sunburn?_"

* * *

Apparently, it took sunburn a few hours to settle in, just like a family moving into a new house: stressful and painful. Caden had never had sunburn before since his mom was always so careful with sunscreen; applying it to his skin every hour or two, maybe every half an hour if he was playing in the water. He never had to experience the burning sensation that felt like his skin was being pealed off slowly before, and he really wished he didn't have to.

It was way past his bedtime, though he was in bed, and the burns were keeping him awake. Every time he moved an inch, the contact between his sheets and clothes to his damaged skin was like sandpaper on an open, bloody wound. It was pure agony, but his mom had given him the perfect treatment for sunburns: aloe. The blue gel was like sugary heaven when it touched his heated, crisp skin, cooling it instantly so it was like there wasn't even sunburn there at all, but the effect didn't last long. After awhile, the aloe would settle in quickly, disappearing so the burning would appear once more to cause his skin pain again. He needed more and he needed it badly.

So, carefully, he removed the blankets from his small form, flinching slightly when his body shifted, courtesy of his sunburn rubbing against his pajamas and the sheets. He ground his teeth together in pain, but he tried his best to ignore it and he moved slowly off his bed and then once on his feet, he walked stiffly out of his room. He waddled uncomfortably so to avoid the sharp stings from his burns, and he was on the verge of just screaming for his 'mommy' to bring him the aloe, but he was a big boy, he could do it himself. So, he continued down the hall to the bathroom where his mom had stored the bottle of heavenly aloe, but, as he got closer to the bathroom, he heard the voices of his parents on the other side of the house. Curious, he ignored his sunburn for a second and walked away from the path to the bathroom and traveled across the house to his parents' room, their voices getting clearer and louder as he got closer, signaling that they were in a heated argument.

"_You're wasting __**my**__ money, woman,_" he heard his dad sneer, his tone filled with rage and Caden was half tempted to turn around. When his dad was mad, no one wanted to be near him, but his young, curious mind forced him to continue tip-toeing forward.

"_**Your**__ money,_" his mom scoffed arrogantly, and Caden knew by the tone in her voice that she had her hands hooked to her hips and was rolling her golden eyes. "_I have a job, too, you know. That money is __**my **__just as much as it's __**yours**__._"

Caden was now in front of his parent's open doorway, standing there unnoticed as his mom threw clothes into a suitcase laying on the bed with a scowl and his dad was on the other side of the bed, his face having an equally angry scowl on his features; pretty much the same sourpuss face he had when he walked into the house after work.

"Then use _your_ god damn money to pay for your god damn school because I can't afford that fucking shit," his dad continued, a vein of irritation pulsing on his forehead, which made his brow twitch.

"I am using _my _god damn money to pay for my god damn school," his mom sharply snapped, roughly throwing a pair of sandals into the suit case. "Why do you think I'm working at Hawkins's seven days a week from eight in the morning to midnight, huh?"

"Don't use attitude with me, _bitch_," his dad barked loudly, pointing a finger at her rudely, which made his mom flinch with fury, her hand quivering at her side like she was ready to slap him, but she didn't, so his dad continued. "And then explain to me why I'm _loosing_ money from my garage instead of gaining. I have been on a decline ever since you started going to fuckin' Grad. School."

"Well, _sorry_ if that is happening since as your _wife,_" she replied snippily, holding up her left hand and pointed at the finger that held her wedding rings. "I have access to your accounts and when bills, as in _all_ bills, need to be paid, the bills _need_ to be paid. And _sorry_ that my dream is affecting your little garage," she mockingly apologized, holding her arms out wide. "What'd ya want me to do? Stand at the corner and sell myself to some creeper for a few hundred more bucks a night?"

That caused his dad to go vivid with rage; his cheeks flaming crimson for fury as he mimicked her pose, holding his own arms out wide and then shouted with a mocking smirk. "Sure, why not? We _all_ know you're a slut, might as well put that to good use, eh?" That made his mom turn beat red, trembling with hatred at his words, but he didn't stop there. "Oh, and while you bring it up, my _darling wife_, the only fuckin' reason I married you was because of that little _mistake_ sleeping on the other side of the house."

Caden felt like the words were worse than any sunburn he could have gotten over a lifetime times two; it was like a sword was stabbed through his back to cut right through his open heart. And it only got worse since his dad was nowhere near finished.

"Now that we're bringin' up '_mistakes_', I think marrying you was a _mistake_, being with you for so long was also a fuckin' _mistake_ and that little brat is a big fuckin' _mistake_ because now _I can never get away from a bitch like you!_" His dad roared at the top of his lungs, pointing in the general direction of where Caden's room was.

Caden almost felt happy that he wasn't in his room, but if he was in his room fast asleep, then he would have never had to hear this argument coming from his parents, especially what his dad said. His dad had never been the…_softness_ person, but it was his dad and he tried…but Caden never thought he was such a _burden_ to him before… It made him want to cry, but he refused to do anything, he refused to move, hoping that he would still go unnoticed; that didn't happen.

It was like her sixth sense, her mother's intuition, because as soon as his dad yelled the words, his mom's head whipped to the doorway, her tanned skin going pale. "Caden…"

The look on her face was too much, there was so much pain in her face; it was probably like looking into a mirror. That was when he dashed away because he saw small tears collecting at the corner of his mom's eyes and he knew that he was going to end up tearing up, too, and he didn't want them to see.

"_Caden!_" He heard his mom shriek as he raced through the house back to his room.

He dove into bed, hurrying to collect the blankets so he was cocooned within, hoping to hide from the world. His body was numb, the thought of his skin having sunburn seemed impossible at that every moment as he buried his head into his hands, chanting quietly to himself that he was a big boy over and over again, trying to make sure he didn't cry.

"Caden…" he heard the soft whisper of his mom at the doorway, but he didn't dare look and just curled up tighter in a ball under the covers. "Caden, baby…" his mom sounded closer, the soft taps of bare feet against the wood flooring. "Are you okay, sweetie?"

That couldn't even be considered a question; of course he wasn't okay. He just heard his own dad say he was a mistake and wished he never happened.

"It'll be okay, okay honey?" She continued gently, the bed shifting slightly as she sat on the edge and then started to rub his back in comfort.

He remained silent; he just wanted to pretend this was all a bad dream and that when he woke up, everything would be better, but then his mom had to say the thing that no kid wanted to hear.

"I'm leaving tomorrow morning."

Caden shot up, removing the blankets from his face so he could look up at her with wide eyes. "Don't go!" He squeaked desperately, planting his small body against her form and wrapped his arms around her back tightly. "Don't leave me here all alone!" The last thing he wanted was to be left alone with a man forever that didn't even want him without the warmth or comfort of his mom there to keep him safe. If she was going to leave, then he was going with her. Though, her reaction to him was slightly confusing.

She chuckled. "It's only an overnight trip, baby," she explained, patting his back lightly.

Oh. So she was coming back; that was different then.

"Mister Drake bought a new house and he thinks it's haunted, so he asked Mister Hawkins's to check it out and he is bringing Miss Ameria and me with him. He said it would be overnight depending on what's there, you know?"

"So you're coming back?" Caden questioned, just to make sure she was positively going to come back because he heard cases from shows on the T.V. where one parent would say that, but didn't come back at all.

"Yes," his mom answered with a sweet smile, pulling him away from her lap and then laid him out on the bed, tucking him in like he was a toddler again. Then she leaned over a placed a tiny kiss to his forehead and whisper: "Remember to use aloe and put sunscreen on before you go outside."

And that is when Caden remembered he had sunburn still.

* * *

He shuffled down the hall, the early morning light shining through the windows as he moved to the kitchen, smelling the aroma of cooking toast in the air. Caden rubbed his eyes, yawning widely as he scratched his tummy while it rumbled lightly when it sensed food was nearby. His mom usually had food ready for him when woke up in the mornings, and he figured that she waited for him to wake up before she left on her trip.

Though that wasn't the case; it was his dad that was in the kitchen.

Caden stopped in the doorway, blinking in confusion at the sight. His dad was not a morning person whatsoever. So seeing him at the counter buttering a piece of toast was a rather odd sight. He didn't move though, the memories of last night still fresh in his mind so he remained still, just watching his dad.

He had the phone pressed between his cheek and shoulder so he could talk hands free, allowing him to work on the basic breakfast food, using a small knife to smear butter onto a piece of the fresh toast. "Apoo," his dad groaned in annoyance, pausing in the preparation of the food to pinch the bridge of his nose. "I told you already _why_ I'm calling you: I need money. So stop with all this shit about how it's strange that I'm calling you."

There was a tiny rumble from Caden's stomach again, making his hands go there automatically like he were to muffle the sound. He was hungry and with his dad being the only parental figure in the household to feed him, he had to ask for something to tide him over until the next time he was straving. So, against his better judgment, considering last night, he shuffled forward until he was at his dad's side, but then he froze.

"_Stop laughing, you bastard!_" His dad then suddenly hissed with a murderous tone in his voice because Apoo was in hysterics because of such a simple thing as money.

Caden just wanted to blend into the background, but his stomach wanted food. So it roared loudly, making its presences known to all. His dad looked down at him in shock, his eyes opening a fraction wider when he saw that Caden was standing so close without him knowing, which made Caden look down at his feet nervously while holding his stomach. "Can I have somethin' to eat…" he whispered softly, hoping to get this over quickly like pealing a band aid off.

"Yeah," his dad answered quietly, and for a moment, he thought his dad was talking to the person on the phone again, but when a piece of toast was handed his way, dangling in front of his eyes, he guessed that his dad was actually talking to him.

He took the slightly burnt piece of bread and nibbled on the edges to see just how badly his dad had torched the toast. Though, he found out that the butter had melted nicely on it, making the flavors blend in a tasteful way. So his small bites turned into larger ones, crumbs falling down on the kitchen floor where Hamish was ready to lick them up. As he stood there beside his dad, his curious mind tuned into the phone conversation and he listened in.

"So can you give me the money or not?" His dad asked into the phone then he paused, pressing his lips into a thin line. "How much? …ten grand…" he slowly answered. There was a surprised screech from the other end of the phone that made his dad go into a mild raging fit. "_Fuck you,_" he seethed then promptly hung up the call and then he slammed the phone onto the counter with growl.

The action made Caden jump with a tiny yelp, dropping the last bite of his toast to the floor where Hamish scampered away with it. The food was lost in his mind though, and the thought replacing breakfast was getting away from his dad's rage, but when he looked up, he saw a look his dad never had before: defeat.

His dad's hand clung to the counter's edge, his shoulders hunched to make the tense muscles of his back show through the bare skin as he leaned forward slightly with a grim expression on his face. The features of his face were shadowed darkly, making the dark bags under his eyes look deeper and the strands of crimson hair hanging over his amber eyes looked bloody. He looked defeated, exhausted from fighting something. Then his dad's eyes locked onto him, and Caden could have sworn he saw a ghost of a smile tugging on the corner of his lips, but it was too hard to tell since his dad never smiled unless it was a devious smirk. And it confused him slightly, but not as much as when his dad moved a hand to rest upon his small head, his fingers ruffling his ginger locks.

Caden's brows furrowed together; his dad never did that, not even before the nasty statement from last night.

Then his dad looked away from him and to his phone still on the counter and then he picked it up, dialed a number and held the phone to his ear, sighing thickly: "Trafalgar…I need a favor."

And that is when the screaming started.

Caden was getting bored of listening to his dad 'talk' to Doctor Trafalgar; they never got along and, in truth, it was pointless they 'talked', period. Yet, his dad decided to call the man called his rival for, once again, money. Caden figured it had to do with his garage, he pieced that together from last night, but he really didn't understand the whole concept, so he left his dad's side to look for aloe since his burns were starting to irritate him once more.

The burns were still painful, and his mom did say to put on aloe when he needed it and his body had made the decision that he needed it, now. So, he went into the bathroom, looking for the bottle in the medicine cabinet.

He wasn't tall enough to reach the cabinet though, so he had to climb up the counter to open it. It was something he was used to doing now so it really didn't freak him out like the first time he did it. Though, his mom did buy a small step for him to use, but he never got to use it for the sole reason of her taking it so she could get to all the stuff on the high shelves in the kitchen because she was too short. Caden didn't mind though, he liked climbing the sink, anyway.

But when he opened the cabinet, he didn't see the large bottle of aloe his mom had given him the night before. He huffed with annoyance and then placed a finger to his chin in thought, wondering where she could have put it…

"_**FUCK YOU, BASTARD!**_" He heard his dad roar clearly from the other side of the house and then the crash of something flying into the wall.

The sound made Caden jump, yelping loudly, and the action caused him to lose his balance, tumbling over the edge of the counter and onto the floor where the back of his head made a brutal impact that echoed in his ears. "_**OUCH!**_" Caden then screamed just as loudly as his dad did, holding the back of his head gently as he felt a bump starting to form.

Then in a flash, his dad was in the doorway, skidding to the ground and scooping him up in his arms. "Are you alright?" His dad questioned quickly, out of breath from his short sprint across the house and he held Caden tightly in his lap as they sat on the bathroom floor together.

Caden blinked, staring at the wall in confusion. "…yeah…" he finally answered slowly, feeling rather awkward in this situation. His dad had never liked holding him, _ever_. Not even as a baby did his dad want to hold him, always handing him off to someone else as quickly as possible. He would have figured that after last night his dad would have stayed clear of him, but it was the exact opposite.

"Are you sure?" His dad asked again, placing a hand to Caden's head, his fingers probing for the bump caused by his fall.

"Positive," Caden replied simply, shaking his head to get rid of his dad's hand moving through his hair.

There was a moment of silence, drawing on thickly as no one said anything. Caden wondered what was going on with his dad; was it something he ate? Now that he mentioned food…that toast tasted a bit fishy…

"What were you looking for, anyway?" His dad then questioned, breaking Caden away from his curious thoughts and slightly panicked ones since he ate that toast, too.

"Aloe," Caden answered shortly.

"Hmm," his dad hummed lightly in thought, leaning over to look in the cabinets under the sink and pulled out the first bottle he saw. "Moose?" He mumbled, his brows furrowing together in confusion when he looked over the thin black bottle with the word written out in cursive on it. "What the fuck is this doing under here?"

Caden just shrugged his shoulders, though he knew why. He, Daniel and Tanner, when the younger boy was over, had taken it from his parents' bathroom and did a few…_experiments_ with it.

His dad looked down at him for a moment then at the bottle, and then he shook his head to get rid of the thoughts as he placed the thin bottle aside on the ground gently. Then reaching back to the dark space under the sink again, he pulled out the heavenly bottle of aloe. Uncapping the bottle, his dad used a single hand to hoist Caden off his lap and then to his feet. Even when Caden was standing up fully, his dad was still taller than him sitting down; he needed a growth spurt and soon. He didn't want to end up short like his mom. He loved the woman that gave him birth, but he just didn't want to have her height, he wanted his dad's.

In truth, Caden actually wanted to be like his dad: strong, tall and intimidating…though he didn't know if he wanted his rage since his rage led him to saying some hurtful things about people he cared about. But rage was a funny thing, like his mom had told him before. She said it led people to say things they don't mean and the only reason why they say it in the first place is because they want to win the argument. But when they won, they will regret the words they have said.

Maybe that was what his dad was going through: regret. He was guilty for the words he said the night before and wanted to make up for them. Caden thought it was a nice thing, but the real question was if his dad would go back and say something like that again. It was a question of the future, so Caden let it go and just enjoyed the moment of his dad actually being nicer than normal to him, helping him apply the cooling agent to all the sunburned skin on his body.

Though, as Caden watched his dad rub the aloe onto his skin, he felt his eyes locking onto his black painted finger nails that stood out like a sore thumb against his pale skin and he found himself asking: "Why do you paint your nails?"

"I don't," his dad grunted roughly. "Your mom does thanks to a bad habit she started when she got bored back in college," he scoffed, rolling his eyes at the memories.

"Oh," Caden mumbled, still staring at his dad's nails and then asked: "Can you paint my nails?"

His dad stopped rubbing the aloe on his skin and then looked up at him, blinking his eyes blankly. "Why would you want me to do that?"

Caden just shrugged; he did say he wanted to be like his dad, in some ways, so maybe looking like him was a step in the right direction.

His dad then sighed thickly, mumbling a quiet whatever, going through with it. When the aloe was all applied where it needed to be, his dad ordered him to sit, which Caden did, and then his dad left the room to go to his own bathroom to get his mom's nail polish. His dad must have been lazy because he didn't just get a bottle, he got the whole bag and plopped it into Caden's lap as he sat back down on the floor in front of him.

So, Caden was left with finding the black bottle, which he easily among the others and then he handed it over to his dad.

"Can't believe I'm doin' this…" he grumbled, untwisting the bottle to open it and hesitantly, he started to paint Caden's nails. It was an awkwardly silent moment between them both, neither of them saying anything to the other as his dad painted his nails rather crappily, but hey, it was the thought that counted, right? Once his dad was done, he started to put everything away, but when he picked up his mom's moose, he stopped and looked at it. "What's this for anyway?" He questioned more to himself than to Caden, but Caden found himself answering his dad anyway.

"It's to make your hair stick up…I think…" He said nervously, knowing for a fact that's what it did… Thanks to Daniel's long hair.

After he said that, his dad looked at him, his brow raising as he exchanged glances between the bottle and Caden over and over again like he was thinking of something. Then a smirk appeared on his lips. "Stay here," he ordered and then left the room, returning a few minutes later with his usual pair of goggle in hand. "Com'ere," his dad then mumbled, waving him over and Caden slowly got up, careful of his nails that were still wet from the polish. Then his dad hooked his hands under Caden's arms, lifting him up easily so he was sitting on the edge of the counter and then his dad leaned over to grab the bottle of moose from the ground.

It was like a foreign object to his dad, not knowing how to open the thing, but since Caden knew how, well, he decided to help his dad just a bit and took the bottle from his hands and then opened to, squirting the foamy substance into his dad's open palm.

His dad scrunched his nose at it and brought it to his nose to sniff it experimentally and then his brows furrowed together. "Why the hell does everything she have smell like pineapples? God damn it," he grumbled as he started to apply the moose to Caden's hair, pulling at his ginger hair gently to make it stand up. Then he took his goggles that were placed to the side for the moment and then placed it onto Caden's forehead. "There…" his dad mumbled when he was done, picking up Caden again and turned him round so his feet were placed firmly on the counter as he looked into the mirror, seeing that his ginger hair was now standing up like his dad's and the goggles held it up.

There was only one thing Caden could say. "I look stupid."

His dad's brows furrowed together in mild rage. "Are you saying _I_ look stupid?"

"No," Caden countered. "I said _I_ do since I can't pull off the way you look, period."

"Damn straight," his dad scoffed, but then he smiled, a real smile that had no evil strings attached, and rested his chin on Caden's tiny shoulder. "But…you do a good job of trying, little man."

Caden couldn't help but feel a grin appear on his lips when he heard his dad say that; it may have been only two words to some people, but it meant the world to him. It was the thing that told him that his dad really did care about him and he wasn't just some mistake. And that made him throw his head back in joyous laughter.

* * *

It was early in the morning, three a.m. to be exact, but Gabriella didn't care; she needed to see Caden. She was used to Kidd's out burst of nasty insults and knew that he didn't mean most of them, like what he said the night before. He was just mad and she would admit that she kindled the flame to his rage, but when he brought Caden into it…and when the boy was right there…Kidd knew he made a drastic mistake.

After she felt her son's room, she saw that Kidd was leaning against the wall outside the door listening in on the conversation. He was staring down at his feet with an _I-can't-believe-I-just-did-that_ defeated look and she knew she couldn't help him with his one. He had to work on fixing the relationship with his son that he about nearly destroyed in only a matter of seconds by himself. So, she left him alone and went back to bed, but only minutes later did Kidd return and crawl into bed with her, asking almost desperately how he was going to fix it.

Her answer was to be a father to Caden, nothing more, nothing less.

Gabriella didn't know if Kidd was able to do that for the twenty-four hours she was gone, and she was a little worried as well. So, she hurried out of that haunted house as quickly as possible and rushed home, seeing that the lights were all off. She came in through the side door at the kitchen, the first one to welcome her being Hamish and then the crunch of a box, a cereal box, under foot.

Her brows furrowed together and she walked across the kitchen floor in the dark to the light switch, feeling her feet bumping into things constantly, and when the lights went on, she saw why. Her house was a mess: toys, food containers were thrown across the floor and furniture was toppled over, the kitchen table leaning against the wall and the chairs in all corners of the rooms.

She would have thought that Kidd had a raging fit over something if it wasn't for him sleeping peacefully on the kitchen's island with Caden lying on his stomach fast asleep aswell. A small chuckle past by her lips as she saw that Caden looked like Kidd with his hair gelled up to look like ginger flames, the goggled perched on his forehead and he even didn't have a shirt on, just like his daddy.

Carefully walking over to the island, she placed her suitcase on the ground and then climbed up onto the island beside her husband, laying down next to him and then she placed a hand to his cheek, rolling his head to the side so she could kiss him. The movement of her lips against his made him stir awake from slumber and he groggily looked up at her with sleepy eyes. "I'm done working the corner for the night," she teased softly, pecking his cheek lightly.

Kidd's eyes opened wider, his mind waking up when he heard that, but then they settled down and he groaned. "Don't joke about that," he grumbled, laying his head back down on the counter top.

She just giggled and moved closer to him, resting her head against his shoulder and then placed a hand on Caden's head, her fingers feeling the stiffness from the gel in his hair. "Did you apologize for calling him a mistake?" She then whispered quietly.

"Why would I do that?" Kidd asked in return, looking over at her with a tiny smirk. "You both are mistakes," he then said, placing a kiss to her forehead and then mumbled: "The best mistakes that ever happened to me."


End file.
